UCTD

The Utrecht Centre for Tick-borne Diseases (UCTD) is focused on research on ticks and tick-borne diseases, which adversely affect animal and human health. The Centre has been created in response to the increased exposure of animals and humans to tick bites and subsequent risks associated with pathogen transmission. The overall aim of the Centre is to develop improved methods for the control of ticks and tick-borne diseases.   

 A broad range of research projects is currently being carried out. The largest project, supported by the Wellcome Trust, concerns the development of vaccines against a number of tropical livestock ticks. In another project, supported by the European Commission, a genomics approach is used to study the tick-host-pathogen relationship of Anaplasma marginale in cattle and ticks. A third project is carried out in close collaboration with a Japanese partner and concerns the sequencing of a large number of isolates of Theileria parva (the cause of East Coast Fever in cattle in Africa) and also from isolates of Ehrlichia ruminantium (the causal agent of heartwater of ruminants in Africa).

 As far as the epidemiology of ticks and tick-borne diseases in the Netherlands is concerned, there are several ongoing projects. The successful “tickbusters” campaign, initiated in 2005 in response to an outbreak of autochtonous canine babesiosis, is continuing and creates a wealth of information regarding ticks and tick-borne pathogens on companion animals in the Netherlands. Similar surveys have started with respect to identifying ticks and tick-borne pathogens in horses as well as in a broad range of wildlife species in the Netherlands.

 Moreover, a longitudinal field survey for ticks, supported by Merial, started in 2008 in a number of locations in the Netherlands with the aim to create risk maps. Finally, the transmission dynamics of a number of tick-borne pathogens is studied using artificial infection methods and in vitro feeding of ticks.

 Most research projects are executed in close collaboration with a number of partners in South Africa, Japan, Spain and the USA. For further information, please refer to the list of recent publications by members of UCTD and its international collaborators.